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Making most of a necessary evil
***Afghanistan's Taliban government has been accused of hypocrisy for its high production, low consumption" narcotics policy, but the opium poppy/ adeem Yaqub writes from Jalalabad, is one of the most profitable crops for the country s hard-pressed farmers.***
LIKE many Afghan farmers. 35-year-old Said Afsar does hot particularly want to grow opium popples. He does so. however, because they pav belter than any other crop — 15 times more than wheat.
And like many Muslim leaders in the country. Habib Gul would prefer farmers to grow something else, but knows they are forced Into poppy cultivation "because in this lies their survival."
The ruling Taliban also have a clear antl-narcotlcs policy, but say "it Is difficult lor the administration to bring an end to cultivation all at once."
It looks as though will curtail the crop in the near future.
Mohammad Nasecb. who Is In charge of the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in Jalalabad, hopes output will be considerably less than last year because of the dry weather. Although poppy needs less water than other crops. It certainly needs some rain for better yields, he points out.
Around Said Afsar's village of Cathell, 45 kilometres from Jalalabad, however, there are poppies in abundance.
Afsar's output of 28 kilo-trams earned around Afghani 7 million ($1,000) this year, from a little more than a hectare of land.
"The money is enough for the whole family to live for a quarter of a year," says Afsar His wife, four children and parents, as well as his three brothers, their wives and children all depend on income from Ihe plot.
Bundles of dry poppy stock are piled up against the high mud walls in the courtyard of Afsar's house, ready for use as cooking fuel.
It Is the same elsewhere in the village, where all 700 farmers recently completed harvesting-
Near the village on top of a mound, an anti-aircraft gun keeps lonely vigil in a reminder of the war fought by Mujahideen rebels against Russian troops for 13 years and. later, against each other.
Almost all the villagers fled during the conflict. When they returned unskilled and uneducated. koknar, the local name for poppy, was the easiest source of livelihood. Opium helped fund ihe war against Moscow.
Their province. Nangarhar, accounts fgrrqudily '451^ r^qld of Afghanistan's Total poppy output. National production topped 1,670 tonnes in 1999 — 24 per cent more than in the previous year — according to the United States government s annual report on the international drugs trade.
On the outskirts of the village lies the main market in the area. Ghaznikhel Bazaa. with more than two dozen shops, where Afsar and the other villagers sell their harvest. Everyday items are displayed in the front of the shops. Behind soiled and torn curtains at the back Ue opium stocks.
Also near the bazaar is the Taliban s district headquarters. Since the opium trade in the bazaar is an open secret, it would be naive to believe the
Taliban authorities do not know about it.
It is also no surprise that a well-organised mafia operates here.
Poppies have been established here for a long time. Cathell's oldest resident. Sayed Gul Bacha — villagers put his age at around 100 — remembers his father growing koknar, his son. Anwarullah, is continuing the tradition But he says It was grown mainly for medicinal purposes (he knows only one treatment for coughs and colds: opium) and did not become a lucrative business until the early 1980s
Habib Gul. the head of the village Shura (consultative council of religious scholars), admits that "it is not good thing, both from the religious and the human point of view" but points out that people have no alternative: there are no jobs, no factories, and no markets for village produce.
Afsar declares that "I will leave poppy cultivation today if 1 am provided with an alternative." In a country that has been at war for two decades, alterna-
tives are hard to come by.
To make the crop even more tempting, drug cartels offer credit on good terms.
Afsar. for example, says he borrowed from drug barons when he needed money In the harsh winter months. He will repay it with opium.
This practice has led the United Nations to try and hit back with loans of its own, which Mohammad Naseeb says are bearing fruit. In a hujra (place for male guests In a house) In Cathell, more than a dozen villagers are sitting on charpoys. sipping sweet tea and discussing the intricacies of UN wheatseed loans.
The repayments will be used to buy a generator to supply the village with power. The villagers will have to pay for the electricity, and the money turned into a revolving fund for the community,
UNDCP warns that although a 1999 survey in selected areas fond opium popples grown on only 2.6 per cent of total cultivated land, political turmoil has resulted in a weakening of ’social and legal constraints on
poppy cultivation. "While many fanners considered It haram, or forbidden in Islam, this did not prevent them from growing the crop." it pointed out In a recent report
Maulvl Ameer Mohammad Haqani. co-ordinator of the Nangarhar Drug Control and Co-ordination Unit, says the Taliban inherited the poppy Problem and that last Novem-er the country's leader, Mullah Omar, asked farmers to reduce the poppy area by one third.
The Taliban are fiercely against drug use and have pointed out that Western countries must prevent Illegal consumption or drugs by their own citizens. In any case, the Taliban are still engaged in a civil war. and lack the resources or means to improve the infrastructure or the economy. In these circumstances, curtailing or stopping opium production will remain an uphill task for the foreseeable future.
- Gemini News Service
The author Is a freelance Journalist based In Peshawar who specialises In human rights and environmental issues.